The Class Reject: A Damsel in Disguise (Featured Story)

Chapter 23

"Where do you think you're going?"

Miren froze in place, feeling Jeno's glare burn against her back. Fuck.

Before she could even think of fleeing, he already had a hand on her shoulder. Double fuck. He narrowed his eyes.

"If I have to suffer here, so do you."

Miren sneered. "Why don't you think about why I don't want to go up there?" she said, averting her gaze from the stage. To be fair, most of the nominees were too hyped to be paying attention to them, but they could be. And that was enough for her.

"Just calm down," Jeno said, leading to the risen platform. "No one's going to expose you except yourself. It's not like they were nominated for a Nobel Prize."

"Nice to see you're adjusting well." Miren spun around, realizing it was Parker who said this. Her eyes widened until she realized she had no reason to be alarmed. So she nodded in acknowledgment, but the gesture came out like an awkward head jerk.

"Um...yeah," she offered, composing herself. "Jeno's been a lot of help."

The curly-haired boy smirked at his competitor. "I didn't know Jeno was capable of liking anyone."

Jeno rolled his eyes. "Why don't you go humor your girlfriend? I'm sure she can stop ruining other people's lives long enough to force a laugh."

They exchanged a charged staring match until Wallace butted in. "If you keep staring at each other like that, people are going to think you're gay lovers."

They scoffed in unison.

"Anyway, Penelope said she wants to take a picture with you," Wallace said, tilting his brother in the witch's direction. "I wouldn't keep her waiting."

"Alright," Parker said. "Tell Miles not to spend too much time with Jeno, or he'll wake up with a permanent frown."

She sighed as he walked away, hoping it would expel the inner tension surging insider her. But something didn't seem right. The way Jeno and Wallace were now associating so casually with each other in her presence...

"You know that he knows?" Miren said to Wallace. He nodded.

"He asked me during the Shadowing. Figured you would have either needed his help or mine to enroll here," Wallace informed her. She nodded hesitantly. It's not like he spilled her secrets to a new soul. But she still felt a tinge of betrayal. "And by the way, I completely agree with his plans." Wallace's eyes were on Penelope now.

Miren had no idea what the extent of these plans was. But that answered another a question. "So I guess you're using each other to avoid briefing me?"

"Yes," Jeno answered. "You're still unstable."

Unstable? She released something that was the combination of a snort and a huff. A snuff. "Seriously? How helpful can I be if I have no idea what's going on?"

"Very," Jeno assured her. His eyes then fell to the headmasters walking toward them. "But we can't talk about this right now."

"Congratulations, students," Headmistress Castro said, clasping her hands. Miren fought the urge to scoff at the woman's gesture. She was playing nice now, but she was almost worse than Penelope. "Before you're released, you each have to sign a contract stating that you'll be present for all of the important meetings for homecoming. Have them in by Monday. If you have to miss them in the case of sports or extracurriculars, you'll need a letter from the supervisor of the particular organization. Homecoming is October 24th. Don't do anything stupid until that then." She paused. "Don't do anything stupid. Period."